Is My Copy of A Visit from St. Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The 1848 Onderdonk is a humble square chapbook of sixteen pages, cheaply bound in a paper wrapper lettered "Santa Claus," illustrated throughout with wood engravings by Theodore C. Boyd — the first time the poem carried a full suite of illustrations as a book in its own right
• There are no edition statements or printing keys to read; identification rests entirely on the imprint (New York: Henry M. Onderdonk, 1848), the Boyd cuts, and the sixteen-page wrappered format
• A genuine textual test exists: the 1848 chapbook follows the punctuation of the 1836 Rural Repository / 1838 Parley's Magazine line — "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer! now, Vixen! / On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Dunder and Blixen!" — rather than the 1823 Troy Sentinel's "Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer, and Vixen, / On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem;"
• Only a handful of copies survive in institutional collections; no copy appeared in the 2006 Sotheby's sale of the Jock Elliott Christmas collection

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Verify this is the US true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

US-only throughout — no UK or foreign-language edition is in play. The poem's true first appearance in print is the Troy Sentinel (Troy, New York), 23 December 1823, p. 3, published anonymously as "Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas"; the 1848 Onderdonk is the first separate/book edition and the first illustrated edition, NOT the poem's first printing. Two intermediate landmarks matter for precedence: Moore was not publicly named as author until The New-York Book of Poetry (New York: George Dearborn, 1837), and the poem first appeared in a book of Moore's own authorship in his Poems (New York, 1844, pp. 124-127). A ca. 1830 Troy Sentinel broadside carrier's address with a Myron King woodcut is the poem's first appearance as a separate sheet and its first illustration.P-044407

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Reprint and facsimile traps dominate this title. Onderdonk reused the Boyd cuts in The Evergreen (December 1849) and rights passed to Spalding & Shepard for their own 1849 chapbook of the poem (New York, 1849) — same cuts, different imprint. Dover Publications reproduced the 1848 edition in 1971, and a ca. 1919 "reprint of the first [sic] publication" of the Troy Sentinel text (held at the Library of Congress) is routinely mistaken for the 1823 original. Anything not a sixteen-page wrappered chapbook bearing the Henry M. Onderdonk 1848 New York imprint is a later issue or a facsimile.P-044408

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of A Visit from St. Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas) a first edition?

A first edition of A Visit from St. Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas) by Clement C. Moore (Henry M. Onderdonk) is identified by: The 1848 Onderdonk is a humble square chapbook of sixteen pages, cheaply bound in a paper wrapper lettered "Santa Claus," illustrated throughout with wood engravings by Theodore C. Boyd — the first time the poem carried a full suite of illustrations as a book in its own right.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. US-only throughout — no UK or foreign-language edition is in play.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

Reprint and facsimile traps dominate this title. Onderdonk reused the Boyd cuts in The Evergreen (December 1849) and rights passed to Spalding & Shepard for their own 1849 chapbook of the poem (New York, 1849) — same cuts, different imprint. Dover Publications reproduced the 1848 edition in 1971, and a ca. 1919 "reprint of the first [sic] publication" of the Troy Sentinel text (held at the Library of Congress) is routinely mistaken for the 1823 original.

I have a first edition of A Visit from St. Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas) — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and decode the printing with the free First Edition Checker. Clearing out books? I take them as a free donation and make sure collectible copies are identified, not discarded: free pickup in the Albuquerque metro (scheduled by route), the 24/7 drop box at 5445 Edith Blvd NE, or donor-paid mail-in from anywhere in the US. Questions? Call or text 505-250-3804.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.